Charles W. Cushman’s London
American Photographer Charles Weaver Cushman (1896-1972) visited London only a couple of times and yet, alongside shots of landmarks such as Big Ben & Trafalgar Sq, he recorded these rare and unexpected images of markets and street vendors in Kodachrome. He bequeathed over 14,000 of his images to Indiana University, where the entire range of his work may be explored in the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection.
Aldgate huckster, April 30th 1961
Bell Lane, April 30th 1961
Petticoat Lane, April 30th 1961
Petticoat Lane, April 30th 1961
Petticoat Lane, April 30th 1961
New Goulston St, April 30th 1961
At St Botolph’s Bishopsgate, April 30th 1961
Liverpool St Station, June 26th 1960
Liverpool St Station, Sunday May 30th 1965
Finsbury Sq, May 30th 1965
St Giles Cripplegate, June 26th 1960
Moorgate, April 30th 1961
Sunday morning on London Bridge, June 26th 1960
Gas lamp cleaners London Bridge, May 29th 1965
Looking east from London Bridge, May 29th 1965
Smithfield Market, May 2nd 1961
Leather Lane, April 28th 1961
Leather Lane, April 28th 1961
Leather Lane, April 28th 1961
Covent Garden, June 26th 1961
Covent Garden, June 26th 1961
Covent Garden, June 26th 1961
Covent Garden, June 26th 1961
Covent Garden, June 26th 1961
Covent Garden, June 26th 1961
Buskers, Leicester Sq, May 14th 1961
St. Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Sq, June 19th 1960
Photographs copyright © The Trustees of Indiana University
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Thank you for sharing and taking me back so many years with these photographs
These photographs are fascinating to me because they depict places that I visit frequently, and have been doing so, for many years. “My” St Giles, before I was christened there, surrounded by flowers ( on bomb sites I believe my parents told me). How different it is now! Petticoat Lane is similar but without the numerous white vans, Covent Garden sans Chanel et Ladurée. I’m so pleased that people had the foresight to take photos of everyday life for us all to enjoy sixty years later.
What a wonderful time report! I love these KODACHROMES because they remind me of the fantastic pictures in “THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE” from the 1950s. These once inspired me to take my own trips to England and Scotland from 1978 onwards. I repeated the “Stroll to John O’Groats” by author Isobel Wylie Hutchison, which was described in an article from July 1956. — That’s how I got to know and love Great Britain and its people!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Excellent. I love Cushman’s images.
Totally de-luxe.
Did someone say “nineteen sixty-one”?
Just looking at those frothy pastel-hued crinolines, wafting in the breeze, made me recall
semi-formal dresses of yore, dyed-to-match heels, little decorative evening purses, and white
gloves. Mists of hairspray, discreet daubs of Estee Lauder perfume behind each year, tiny
pearl earrings — and off we go.
The doldrums of that grey cloudy day at the marketplace must have been swept away by those colorful poufs of netting, and the thoughts of magical evenings twirling on the dance floor.
Yes, all of that……….in one photograph. And more.
Thank you, GA.
Wonderful images, and the London I grew up in!
These are lovely. The man in Leicester Square is busking on the day I was born.